Father James Robinson solved racial unrest in Selma

SELMA – The year was 1972 and Selma, just seven years removed from its historic role in the voting rights movement being commemorated this weekend, found itself once again embroiled in racial controversy.

Instead of voting in 1972, it involved millions of dollars in federal funds that were being held up in Washington by black civil rights activists who filed a lawsuit over the way white leaders apparently planned to disperse it.

Into the mix came a big, burly priest who grew up in a one of Selma's poor black Baptist neighborhoods, converted to Catholicism and forged a reputation as a skilled problem solver.

His name was James Robinson and he worked his municipal magic once again by bringing competing groups together in Selma for the betterment of the community.

It was called the "Selma Accord" and contained provisions to make sure part of those millions would be used equitably, especially in slum areas that lacked many of the services residents of upscale areas took for granted.

He was called "Jimmy" or "Sonny" as a boy, but those who got to know him well had no problem referring to him later as "Father Robinson" or "Monsignor Robinson," a title bestowed on him for his many clerical talents.

His management expertise in Detroit proved invaluable in 1987 when he welcomed Pope John Paul II to a service at the archdiocese's leading church.

Motor City congregants are in mourning for Robinson, who died Jan. 9 from kidney and heart problems at the age of 83. He will be buried Wednesday back home in Selma.

"The positive impact he had in this town was evident as a result of the 'Selma Accord,' " said Alston Fitts, a Selma author and historian familiar with Robinson's efforts to bring about racial harmony.

Robinson and the late Joe Smitherman, who served as mayor of Selma for nearly 40 years, had an ambivalent relationship, but each respected the other and met often to discuss municipal matters.

"We'd relax, have a drink and look for ways to make Selma a better place to live," Robinson said during a 2009 interview with the Montgomery Advertiser. "Both of us knew how important it was to bring people together, not divide them."

Robinson also did something just as dramatic as implementing the "Selma Accord." He also convinced the Selma City Council to create 11 separate election districts instead of voting on an at-large basis.

The result was historic with five black candidates elected to the council for the first time. Today, blacks have a majority on the council, but, back at the time, it was viewed as somewhat earthshaking within Selma's white community.

"I believe (Robinson) did more to bring the races together at a critical time after the 1965 voting rights demonstrations than any black leader I know," Smitherman said at the time.

J.L. Chestnut, who became one of Alabama's leading black lawyers, was one of Robinson's boyhood pals and knew about his persuasive powers.

He had to use all of them in order to get the divisive groups to sit down and talk about what separated them. Selma's situation at that time was obvious to anyone who walked through poor black neighborhoods.

There were still unpaved streets, smelly, outdoor toilets, poor drainage, shotgun shacks and other problem areas. Millions in federal funds could have improved those neighborhoods, but a lawsuit prevented any of it from reaching Selma.

In Chestnut's autobiography, "Black in Selma," he said Robinson let both sides know that the lawsuit was "the worst case of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face I've ever heard of."

Reaching a fair settlement freed millions of dollars that were used to fix many of the problems in impoverished areas as well as construction of a new municipal complex.

Robinson's civil rights efforts were already legendary before he returned home in 1969 to become assistant director of the Edmundite Mission in Selma.

As pastor of the St. Catherine Mission in Elizabeth, N.C., he was a moving force in integrating that town's public schools. His efforts there led to the construction of a new high school.

In 1975, a decade after passage of the Voting Rights Act launched by protests in Selma, Robinson escorted Coretta Scott King across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in a symbolic recognition of the historic event.

Selma's Edmundite presence also produced another nationally known Catholic cleric — Moses Anderson — who oversaw duties of the Archdiocese of Detroit. He and Robinson were boyhood friends. Anderson died at the age of 84 in 2013.